We are going to finish higher than last year in a more competitive league and we have made the Super 8's so its undeniable that we have made progress compared to last year, even if some of the old failings are still present.

I think Radford has done enough to see out the third and final year of his contract but I would be unhappy if he was to be offered an extension before this time next year.

What we think is irrelevant anyway as Pearson has clearly decided Radford is the coach for the foreseeable future.

Good post, although we have to perform to the end in the top 8 and try and finish at least 6th IMO, once(if) we can't finish in the top 4, give some more gametime to the likes of Fash, HWT, Lancaster and Naughton.

However, we have still to hit the levels of achievement seen under the last coach. Not to mention that our owner clearly stated that just achieving the top 8 would NOT be seen as a success under his regime.

True but our owner seems to have a habit of changing his mind about lots of things.

I guess it is a bit sad that scraping into the top 8 is seen as an achievement.

We are about on par with when Gentle was in charge, it's now up to the players and Radford to make sure we kick on and improve on that and challenge for the top 4, with our current squad and signings we have real potential, but I've said and thought this many other times.

Well I hope the players are professional enough to realise that the season is not over until the end of the super eights. That being the case they should be going out to try and win every match and LR should be drilling this into them. I didn't buy a season pass just to watch an end of season party lasting 7 games.

Making the top 8 is [ian[/i achievement. Just not the season defining one we should be aiming for.

We still have 7 games to kick on and while I'd argue that we haven't got back to the level we were at under Gentle we have the potential to exceed it this season.

Let's face it - we are in a far better position now than I and many other fans were predicting for most of the season and even as recently as the last couple of weeks. No reason why we can't continue to exceed expectations even given our injury situation.

Are we? 6th in a 14 team league +cc final in 2013.
With a fading patched up Horne and our no.7 out for 1/3 of 2013 and was never really the same after his head injury, starting the season with a rookie winger & centre on the same side, rookie FB & SH for the last 8 games with zero SL exp. Ellis missed 16 SL games out of 29 (incl Playoffs) so to finish where we did AND reach the CC final was nothing short of a miracle. We then had the players giving up in the final game which took the edge off a progressive 2nd season under PG.

Radford has benefited from a set of established halves that have being fit pretty much all season, Ellis has missed a few games for sure but Watts, Paea and Mini have bolstered the fowards no end this season.
Given the squad we have I'm really dissapointed where we are, we've scored less points than all but one team in SL (the shower that is Wakey) so there's a relatively big difference from our performance/level in 2013 to this season despite only a potential one place differential in league position, we've hugely underperformed IMO.

If you define BAD defeats as not getting a spanking then yes you are correct. However a defeat against a team that has lost 16 games on the trot and completely out of their depth in this super league season, I think is a BAD defeat. A terrible defeat infact!

Have we nicked any games, we have really not deserved to win? Struggling to think of many, but we have lost plenty that we let slip and should've won, they for me are bad defeats too. The ones that got away. Being beaten fair and square by the better team is acceptable, throwing away games is not.

Several bad defeats over the course of the season for me.

At the start of the season i said getting into the eight would be decent considering and we have done. This season Radford has had good patches and some bad ones too with this team but it seems the good patches are becoming more frequent now so im hoping hes now finding a way of keep the team consistent. Apart from the Leeds second half we have not been battered though a lot of displays have been average to poor yet we still have managed to stay close to sides. We also had a fair few new players this season inc two new halfs and our talisman Ellis's injuries have bit just as hes been in awesome form. All things considering ill say that Radford has done above average and now has the next eight games to try and keep the consistency going that we now seem to have even if it means winning ugly. Next year with Pritchard, Taylor and hopefully a couple of top notch backs we then have to become a 4-6 placed team and Radford has to deliver this - if not he has to go.

After the shocking early part of the season we then enjoyed a really good run. This came to an end with the matches against Leeds (2), Catalans and Wakey away. Although disappointed that we lost them I was not surprised with the Leeds and Catalan results so for me the Wakey defeat was the hardest to accept. Since then we've got back on the horse and started winning consecutive matches. There seems to be a real togetherness in the team and I think they've a good chance of upsetting some of the big boys in the next 7 games. Lets just get behind them (LR included) and give them our total support. Any inquest can be held once the season is over.

The problem is Knocker that because we have just made the top eight some fans will see that as progress but as you have pointed out that since his appointment Radford has taken the club backwards despite his own squad and no major injury list which Peter Gentle also had to contend with.